On a year-over-year basis the state’s foreclosure total is 27 percent below the level reported for January 2010, according to the latest RealtyTrac® U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

One in every 402 Illinois housing units received a foreclosure filing in January, the eighth highest state foreclosure rate in the nation for the month.

January was the 49th consecutive month that California maintained its status as the nation’s foreclosure leader. Remaining in sole possession of the nation’s number two spot for that same time period, Florida reported 21,671 properties with foreclosure filings for the month. Michigan came in a distant third, reporting 15,716 properties with foreclosure filings, followed by fourth place Arizona, where 15,757 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. Fifth highest foreclosure total was reported in Texas, where 14,897 properties with foreclosure filings were tallied.

The rest of January’s top 10 foreclosure states included Illinois (13,164), Georgia (12,772), Nevada (12,263), Ohio (8,924) and New Jersey (5,526). The nation’s top five states accounted for 52 percent of all foreclosure activity for the month.

KaneCounty posts state’s top foreclosure rate in January

KaneCounty posted the highest foreclosure rate of all Illinois counties in January, with one in every 226 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing — 2.2 times the national average. McHenryCounty reported the second highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 230 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing during the month — 2.2 times the national average. One in every 236 housing units in KendallCounty received a foreclosure filing during the month, the third highest foreclosure rate in the state — 2.1 times the national average.

CookCounty dominates state foreclosure activity in January

CookCounty started off 2011 reporting 7,255 properties with foreclosure filings in January, the highest total in Illinois for the month. Du Page County tallied the second highest total in the state, reporting 1,123 properties with foreclosure filings. Third highest was WillCounty, where 948 properties with foreclosure filings were reported. KaneCounty came in fourth, reporting 774 properties with foreclosure filings, followed by LakeCounty, where 770 properties with foreclosure filings were reported for the month.

State contributes 5 percent to the nation’s foreclosure total in January

Illinois accounted for 5 percent of the 261,333 properties with foreclosure filings reported nationwide in January. Total U.S. activity increased by more than 1 percent from December, but was down more than 17 percent from the level reported in January 2010. One in every 497 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing during the month.

“We’ve now seen three straight months with fewer than 300,000 properties receiving foreclosure filings, following 20 straight months where the total exceeded 300,000,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Unfortunately this is less a sign of a robust housing recovery and more a sign that lenders have become bogged down in reviewing procedures, resubmitting paperwork and formulating legal arguments related to accusations of improper foreclosure processing.”

Report methodology

The RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the RealtyTrac database during the month — broken out by type of filing by state, county and metropolitan statistical area. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the month may have been recorded in previous months. Data is collected from more than 2,200 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 90 percent of the U.S. population. RealtyTrac’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default—Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction— Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). If more than one foreclosure document is received for a property during the month, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The report also checks if the same type of document was filed against a property in a previous month. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state the property is in, the report does not count the property in the current month.

For current news and information regarding foreclosure-related issues and trends, check out our blog at www.ForeclosurePulse.com.

About RealtyTrac

RealtyTrac® is the leading provider of comprehensive housing data and analytics for the real estate and financial services industries, Federal, state and local governments, academic institutions, and the media. Data is aggregated from parcel-level records of more than 125 million U.S. residential and commercial properties and delivered through customizable products including bulk file licensing, APIs and custom reports.